Kelly thinks Eagles worked too slowly in opener

The coach was thrilled to get victory, not so thrilled to be nearly solved by the end of the game.

September 10, 2013|By Nick Fierro, Of The Morning Call

PHILADELPHIA — — Chip Kelly said on Tuesday that his Philadelphia Eagles offense can be much faster and much more efficient than it was in Monday night's 33-27 victory over the Washington Redskins.

But he also admitted he needs to tweak some things to keep his offense, which ran 77 plays, from slowing down late in games, like it did against the Redskins, who trailed 33-7 before giving themselves a chance to steal a victory at the end.

"If we're going to get that many snaps," he said, "we need to distribute the reps a little better, so we can be fresh in the fourth quarter."

One fourth-quarter series in particular illustrated this problem. Quarterback Michael Vick began it with back-to-back runs, the latter which went for 36 yards as Vick stumbled during the run before being flattened by DeAngelo Hall.

The Eagles huddled after that play to give Vick some extra recovery time he might not have needed if he hadn't run on two straight plays. They weren't able to get another first down, which would have put them in field-goal range, and eventually had to punt from Washington's 42-yard line after a holding penalty.

However, Kelly believes the Eagles could have put the game out of reach by the fourth quarter if they had handled things a little differently in the first three.

"I felt like it was slow, to be honest with you," Kelly said. "I'm not joking. We've got to do a better job. We left the ball on the ground too much. We didn't get the ball to the officials. We could have sped things up from a process between plays. That's something we need to continue to work on.'

Center Jason Kelce agreed.

"We know we can go faster," Kelce said. "I mean there's still a lot of room for improvement, especially up front, with the offensive line in particular in the second half."

Kelly also said that cornerback Brandon Hughes, who was re-signed earlier on Tuesday, would be good to go in practice this week after recovering from a broken hand.

Hughes had been released on Saturday in a move to give them more salary cap flexibility should they need to cut him later this season. Because he's a vested veteran, his salary would have been guaranteed if he was on the roster to start the season.

Tempo actually was an issue for most of the night, according to Kelly, who thought the team didn't do enough to shorten the second half, which would have kept the Redskins from threatening with a comeback.

But his defense was fine before the Redskins started to play with desperation.

"I think we put them on the field a little bit," he said of his defense "I think it's the same thing, is that you have to be able to make some plays defensively too. Also, give them credit. Obviously we got out to a great start defensively to start the game, but you knew with someone of RG3's [Robert Griffin III] talent, that wasn't going to be a game where they kept serving up plays to us. You always wondered when you were going to take a shot. They were going to make a counterpunch to what you're doing to them.'

The bottom line, according to Kelly, is that this fast-paced offense will need some adjustments. The fine tuning is not there yet.

"As I get a better feel for our guys, they get a better feel for us," Kelly said. "It's something that you're always going to continue to work on. Fourminute offense, so to speak, is just as important as the twominute offense."

The coach addressed other issues as well, saying that defensive end Vinny Curry wasn't activated for a combination of defensive and special-teams reasons and that he did not endorse Vick acting on his own and blocking on certain running plays against the Redskins.

"Just a combination of what our depth is," Kelly said of Curry's scratch. "In that game, we're going to have six linemen active, not seven. Always factor with the backup guys, special teams."

Still, it means Clifton Geathers and Damion Square are ahead of him on the depth chart, which doesn't bode well for the second-year end of out Marshall. Curry was a second-round pick. Square was undrafted this year, and Geathers is a third-year journeyman with limited experience.

Kelly also revealed that cornerback Bradley Fletcher is out indefinitely with a concussion, which could mean some action right away for Hughes coming back into the mix.